This year's edition of the Archive's celebration of Iranian Cinema presents an array of established and emerging talents. Six recent features combine with timely documentaries and shorts to present a varied picture of Iran's diverse cultures, experiences and expressions. Pending their availability, we hope to welcome several guests to present and discuss their work in person. Please check back for updates on in-person guests for this program.

All films from Iran and in Persian with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

Saturday, February 67:30 p.m. NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS Iran, 2009
PROD/DIR: Bahman Gohbadi. SCR: B. Gohbadi, Hossein M. Abkenar, Roxana
Saberi. CINE: Turaj Asiani. EDIT: Hayedeh Safiyari. CAST:
Negar Shaghaghi, Askan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad.
Bahman Gohbadi (Turtles Can Fly, shown in our 2005 edition) offers a
glimpse of can-do determination. Faced with prohibitions against rock
music, bandmates Negar and Ashkan plot to leave Iran for England to make music
their way. Their deliberate progress toward this elusive goal takes them
through the underground rock scene in a brisk, often comical look, at a side of
Iranian life seldom seen on film.
35mm, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 101 min.

Sunday, February 77 p.m. TRADITION OF KILLING LOVERS Iran, 2004
PROD: Mahmoud Fallah. DIR/SCR: Khosro Masoumi. CINE: Nader Masoumi.
EDIT: Hassan Hassandoust. CAST: Hossein Abedini, Gohar Kheirandish,
Hossein Mahjoub, Hurie Mirmohammadi, Arman Nikzad.
Jailed for harvesting trees to support his family, Salar is replaced as
breadwinner by his young son Jalal while Jalal’s sister strains to defend
her husband, a policeman, from the fury of her mother (Gohar Kheirandish) after
he is forced to transport his father-in-law to prison. Director Khosro
Masoumi undergirds his analysis of encroaching economic despair with emotional
range and power.
35mm, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 90 min.

**IN PERSON: actress Gohar
Kheirandish.

Monday, February 87:30 p.m. WIND BLOWS IN THE MEADOW Iran, 2008
PROD: Fath’olah Jafari Jozani. DIR/SCR: Khosro Masoumi. CINE:
Nader Masoumi. EDIT: Hassan Hassandost. CAST: Elnaz
Shakerdoust, Hossein Abdedini, Reza Naji, Jamal Ejali, Maedah Tahmasbi.
After her father is injured in an accident, Shouka is dismayed to find herself
betrothed to the developmentally-disabled son of one of the family’s
creditors. Wooed by the assistant tailor hired to make her wedding dress,
Shouka sees a possible escape, but danger looms in this delicately drawn drama.
35mm, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 91 min.

COUNTDOWN Iran, 2008
PROD: Maziar Bahari. DIR: Khatereh Hanachi. CINE: Rita Ebrahimi.
EDIT: Hamid Najafi Rad.
Along with more than a million high-school graduates, Parisa studies for
difficult and competitive college entrance examinations, thought by many to be
a young woman’s best hope for a career in Iran. The familial and
spiritual strains of this ritual are well rendered by director Khatereh
Hanachi, as Parisa and her family face numerous sacrifices to realize a dream.
DVCam, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 50 min.

Sunday, February 147 p.m. TINAR Iran, 2007
PROD/DIR: Mahdi Moniri. CINE: Seyed Hassan, Seyedi Parishan. EDIT:
Mohammad Moeen Karimoddini.
A pastorale of great beauty and poignancy, director Mahdi Moniri’s
lyrical documentary foregrounds a poor boy’s resilience and courage.
Young Tinar lives alone in the mountains of northern Iran. Abandoned
by his recently widowed and re-married father, he supports himself as a cow
herder, surviving emotionally on long-held hopes of attending school or joining
urban relatives who might care for him.
DVCam, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 77 min.

Friday, February 197:30 p.m. MY LITTLE COUNTRY Iran, 2008
PROD: Saeed Rashtian. DIR/SCR: Abbas Mohammadi. CINE: Reza Jalali.
EDIT: Masoumeh Shah Nazari.
The moving portrait of a school for Afghani refugee children in Iran that gives
its students a place to feel safe and acknowledged, to study their shared past
and dream of a return to their home country.
DVCam, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 26 min.

THE LEGEND OF GORDAFARID Iran, 2008
PROD/DIR/SCR: Hadi Afarideh. CINE: Ashkan Ashkani. EDIT: Hamid
Najafi Rad.
One woman’s saga studying and performing a style of epic theater
previously reserved only for men. Her fierce determination leads to some
pushback, but more often wins admiration and respect.
DVCam, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 34 min.

Saturday, February 207:30 p.m. ABOUT ELLY Iran, 2009
PROD/DIR/SCR: Asghar Farhadi. CINE: Hossein Jafarian. EDIT: Hayedeh
Safarian. CAST: Taraneh Alidousti, Golshifteh Farahani, Mani
Haghighi, Shahab Hosseini, Merila Zarei.
Asghar Farhadi (Beautiful City, shown in our 2005 edition) returns with
this captivating drama, Iran’s entry to the 2010 Academy Awards. When
schoolteacher Elly is whisked away by friends on a pleasure trip to the Caspian
Sea, their true agenda is revealed: to marry her off to the recently divorced Ahmad.
The fib is the first of many in what soon becomes a mystery when Elly
suddenly disappears.
35mm, color, in Persian with English subtitles, 119 min.

VENUE: All programs will take place at the Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood (courtyard level of the Hammer Museum).

TICKETS:Advance tickets are available for $10 at www.cinema.ucla.edu.Tickets are also available at the Billy Wilder Theater box office starting one hour before showtime: $9, general admission; $8, students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members with ID.
PARKING: $3 in the lot under the theater. Enter from Westwood Blvd., just north of Wilshire.